North Bay, WI

North Bay is its own municipality, not a Racine neighborhood and not part of Wind Point, even though it shares a ZIP code and a police department with its neighbors. The village's history page says legal steps to incorporate began in late 1951, the incorporation election on December 22, 1951 carried, and the village was officially incorporated on December 31, 1951. The first village officers were elected on January 31, 1952.

It is very small. The village's About page lists a 2020 census population of 209, 97 single-family homes and a total area of 56.1 acres. The Census 2024 gazetteer gives 0.105 square miles of land. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report puts North Bay at 206 people and $56.9 million of full value.

The village sits on Lake Michigan and, per the About page, is bordered by the City of Racine. Its streets include North Main Street, Vincennes Circle, North Street and Chatham Street, plus several private drives, among them Shore Acres Drive. Village Hall is at 3615 Hennepin Place.

The address catches people. North Bay homes use a Racine, WI 53402 mailing address, the same ZIP code as Wind Point and much of Caledonia. Coming from Lake County, Illinois, where the mailing town usually matches the tax bill, the buyers I talk to don't expect that, and the municipality line on the tax bill is the only thing I'd trust. North Bay's zoning, sewer rules and tax rate are its own.

The village is run by part-time elected officials. The village's Executive Board page describes six of them: a president and three trustees, for public works, water and wastewater, and the constable role, who vote, plus a treasurer and a clerk who don't.

North Bay's zoning is the most important thing to know about it. The village's About page says the entire village is zoned for single-family residential use and that village ordinances prohibit business operations, with one state-required exception for licensed vacation rentals, covered in the rentals section.

The village codebook, published July 29, 2025, divides the village into two residence districts split by North Main Street. Land west of North Main Street is R-1, with a minimum lot of 0.75 acres, or 32,670 square feet. Land east of North Main Street, toward the lake, is R-2, with a minimum of 0.5 acres, or 21,780 square feet. Lots already occupied by a house are grandfathered. Permitted uses are permanent one-family dwellings and their accessory buildings, temporary construction sheds and municipal buildings.

The code also sets minimum house sizes. A one-floor house needs at least 1,700 square feet of living space, and a two-floor house at least 2,000 square feet with at least 1,400 on the ground floor. Basements, attics, garages, breezeways and porches don't count, and every house must have a garage. The codebook also names a "Shore Acres Territory," the parcels south of the North Bay subdivision and east of the Bayside subdivision, that may not be further subdivided without Planning Commission approval.

Permits are strict. The village's zoning and building page says permits are valid for two years, a final inspection is mandatory, and fees double for a first offense of unpermitted work and triple for later offenses or a skipped final inspection. In August 2026 the village adopted Ordinance 2026-3 on solar and wind energy systems.

For a buyer, the practical effect is a village that will stay what it is: no new commercial uses, no lot splits below half an acre, and no small new houses. On any teardown or addition, I'd read the minimum-size and garage rules before the design.

Every home in North Bay is a detached single-family house. The 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 112 housing units, plus or minus 57, all detached, against the village's own count of 97. With a sample this small the margins are wide, so I use the survey for shape, not precise counts.

The houses are older and larger than Racine County's typical home. The survey's median year built is 1952, against 1968 for the county, and the biggest building waves were the 1950s (about 42 homes) and the 1940s (about 34), with about 15 from before 1940 and only a handful after 1970. The median number of rooms is 8.1, against 5.7 for the county. Almost every occupied home is owner-occupied: 105 of 106 in the survey.

The survey's median owner-estimated value is $490,000, plus or minus $106,939, against $251,400 for Racine County. That margin is too wide to quote as a price, but it places North Bay well above the county.

A 1940s or 1950s house on a large lot brings its own inspection list: the sewer lateral (which matters more here than almost anywhere, given the sewer section), the electrical service, the original windows and the roof. The expectation I most often reset with Illinois buyers is that a large lot means room to add on; here the minimum-size rules help, but the sewer limit and the permit rules set the pace.

North Bay has a public lakefront of its own, which is unusual for a village this size. The village's parks page describes North Bay Park and a public beach, open sunrise to sunset with no lifeguard. The rules are strict: no alcohol, no fires, no fireworks, dogs leashed, and no removing stone, gravel, sand or earth from the lake bed or waterways. The same page mentions a creek as well as the lake.

The shoreline is under study. The village posted on September 29, 2026 that a site visit with the engineering firm GZA, to inspect public land and coastal conditions under a coastal and landscape architecture proposal GZA submitted on March 10, 2025, was rescheduled to 10 a.m. on October 5, 2026. No action was to be taken at the visit. I'd watch the board agendas that follow for any shoreline project and how it would be paid for.

Private lakefront follows state and village rules. The village codebook defines shorelands as land within 1,000 feet of a lake's ordinary high-water mark, which in a village this small covers most of it, and the zoning page links to the Wisconsin DNR's shoreline erosion control program. For a lakefront house I'd want a recent bluff and shoreline assessment, the condition and permits of any existing shore protection, and the distance from the house to the top of the bank.

On price, the public record is plain: North Bay is not a $2 million-plus market. The highest monthly median sale in Redfin's public data since 2021 was $975,000, a single sale in May 2023 that took 263 days. In the 12 months through May 2026, monthly medians were $754,500 (two sales in September 2025), $825,000 (one sale in October 2025, after 468 days), $400,000 and $520,000. I could not tell from the public data which of those were on the water.

North Bay's market is measured in single sales. Redfin's public monthly data counts 5 sales in the 12 months from June 2025 through May 2026, against 6 the year before. Those five closed in four months: two in September 2025 at a median of $754,500, one in October 2025 at $825,000, one in March 2026 at $400,000, and one in May 2026 at $520,000, which sold at about 106% of its list price after 19 days.

Earlier sales give a similar range. Redfin's single-sale medians since 2021 include $326,250 (October 2021), $460,000 (November 2022), $610,000 (August 2023), $525,000 (February 2024) and $390,000 (February 2025). Days on market have run from under three weeks to more than a year.

Inventory is often zero. On October 5, 2026 Coldwell Banker's North Bay page showed no active or pending listings. Zillow does not publish a North Bay home value index, so there is no smoothed "typical value" to quote; the survey and the sales above are the best public picture.

How I'd price here: with five sales a year, the comparable sales that matter come from North Bay itself over several years and from Wind Point's lake-side streets next door, adjusted for frontage, lot size and the sewer status of the parcel. A buyer who wants North Bay should expect to wait for a house.

Wisconsin property tax uses different words from Illinois. The local assessor sets an assessed value, the Department of Revenue sets a full (equalized) value for the municipality, and the ratio between them is the assessment level. Rates are quoted in mills, dollars per $1,000 of assessed value.

The DOR's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report puts North Bay at an assessment level of 0.98, a gross rate of 1.817% of full value, and an effective rate of 1.665% after the state school levy credit. The whole village is in Racine Unified, so this is not an average of several school districts. For comparison, the same report gives neighboring Wind Point 1.236%, the City of Racine 2.218% and Racine County overall 1.546%. North Bay's rate is well above Wind Point's because its small tax base carries its own village costs.

A worked example. On a $520,000 primary residence, the price of the May 2026 sale, the 1.665% effective rate gives about $8,658 a year before the lottery and gaming credit. The DOR's 2025 lottery credit report says that credit applies only to a primary residence and is a $27,000 credit value times the school tax rate, with a statewide average of $190 for 2025-26. With a credit near that average, the bill would be roughly $8,470. The same house in Wind Point, at 1.236%, would be about $6,430 before credits.

The bill also carries sewer. The village's wastewater page says sewer fees, based on each property's water use, are added to the property tax bill once a year. The village's tax page says bills are mailed in December, with the first installment or full payment due to the village by January 31 and the second installment due to the Racine County Treasurer by July 31.

Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value, customarily paid by the seller. This is general information, not tax advice. Your bill depends on your parcel, credits and the assessor.

North Bay's sewer situation is the single most unusual fact about the village. The village's wastewater page says the village contracts with the City of Racine Wastewater Utility to treat its wastewater, and that no new sanitary sewer connections to the Racine system are permitted in North Bay, because the village is not currently a signatory to an intergovernmental agreement that would allow them. Existing connections may be repaired, replaced or relocated only with board approval.

That rule matters most for anyone thinking about a vacant parcel, a lot split, or a teardown that would move the house. Before buying with any of those plans, I'd get the village's written position on the specific parcel's existing connection, and ask whether any change to the intergovernmental agreement is under discussion. For a plain resale of an existing house, I'd still have the sewer lateral scoped.

Water is simpler. The village's water page says homes are served by the Racine Water Utility, which bills owners directly.

Trash depends on the street. The village's public works page says public streets get weekly automated trash and every-other-week recycling from Johns Disposal in village-owned carts. Homes on private drives get a weekly small-truck drive-up collection instead, and owners there buy their own trash carts, limited to three 32-gallon carts. Yard waste is collected twice a month from mid-April to late November, and leaves on most public roads are collected at the curb from mid-October until the first measurable snow.

North Bay prohibits businesses but, as state law requires, allows vacation rentals with a village license. The village codebook sets the rules in Ordinance 2023-1, effective August 29, 2023. No vacation rental may operate without a village license, and a separate license is needed for each rental.

The application asks for the property address, the owner's and operator's contact details, a local contact within 20 miles if the owner lives farther away, a copy of the state tourist rooming house license, proof of property and liability insurance, and proof of compliance with the village's minimum standards, including occupancy limits tied to bedrooms and living area. The code also caps the season: if a property is rented for stays of more than 6 but fewer than 30 consecutive days, those rentals must fall within one 180-consecutive-day period in any 365 days.

For a buyer who plans to rent a North Bay house part of the year, the license, the state rooming house license and the 180-day window are the three things to line up before closing.

All of North Bay is in the Racine Unified School District. DOR's 2025 school-district tables put the village's entire $56.9 million of value in Racine Unified, and the village's tax page asks residents to list school district 4620, Racine Unified, on their state income tax forms.

Racine Unified enrolled 15,781." Wikipedia lists Jerstad-Agerholm K-8 School and Horlick High School as North Bay's zoned schools.

Assignment follows the parcel and the district's current boundary map, not a reference page. Racine Unified's boundary pages blocked automated access when I checked, so confirm every address with the district before counting on a school.

North Bay sits at the north edge of Racine, so local trips are short and Chicago trips are long. I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from the center of the village on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates.

From North Bay, downtown Racine is about 3 road miles and 6 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 23 miles and 43 minutes, and Mitchell Airport about 18 miles and 34 minutes. Vernon Hills is about 50 miles and 70 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 77 miles and 103 minutes, and O'Hare about 73 miles and 114 minutes.

There is no station in the village. Amtrak's Sturtevant stop is about 11 road miles and 23 minutes away; in Amtrak's schedule feed for the week of October 12, 2026, the Sturtevant station has 6 weekday Hiawatha trains to Chicago Union Station, with rides of 76 to 84 minutes. Metra's Kenosha terminal is about 14 miles and 28 minutes away; in Metra's GTFS data for the same week it has 10 weekday trains to Ogilvie, at 92 or 102 minutes. A North Bay to Loop trip is about two hours door to door.

The village's police page says police service in North Bay comes from the Wind Point Police Department in conjunction with the Racine County Sheriff's Department, and that Wind Point runs a joint municipal court for both villages at the Lighthouse Hall, 4725 Lighthouse Drive. Overnight parking on village streets is prohibited from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Fire and paramedic service come from the Caledonia Fire Department under an intergovernmental agreement, per the village's fire and EMS page, which says the department's Station 12 headquarters at Chester Lane and Four Mile Road is about 2.25 miles from the village's northern border. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can ask the department or look up reported figures on the FBI Crime Data Explorer.

The trade-offs are concrete. Homes rarely come up, often none at a time. The sewer rule means vacant lots, splits and some teardowns face a real obstacle until the intergovernmental agreement changes. The 1.665% effective tax rate is well above Wind Point's next door. The houses are mostly from the 1940s and 1950s. The public schools are Racine Unified. And Chicago and O'Hare are past 90 minutes on a clear road.

I'd pull the tax bill and the village's sewer position for the exact parcel before falling for a house.